Wednesday, June 28, 2006

New Delhi: It is going to be a long, intense fight in the court for Jet Airways and Air Sahara. And the two airlines, which recently fell out over a 2,300-crore takeover deal, seem to have worked out their plans for it.Sources close to Air Sahara told HT that the airline has appointed Ernst &Young to quantify the damages it will seek through arbitration.Sources said Sahara will seek direct damages of over Rs 2,000 crore from Jet through a process of arbitration once the Bombay High Court appoints the arbitrator. Jet has filed a petition under Section 9 in the Bombay HC which will come up for hearing in two weeks. Till the time of the verdict, Sahara wants the escrow account of Rs 1,500 crore with ICICI Bank frozen.Sahara chief Subrata Roy has given its team of lawyers —led by legal luminary Fali Nariman — the go-ahead. In all likelihood, Nariman will argue the case for Sahara in arbitration.27/06/06 Arun Kumar/Hindustan Times